Coconut Sandwich Cookies

Coconut made quite a few guest appearances in my childhood. In 2nd grade, my teacher brought in a coconut, a hammer, and a nail and proceeded to mercilessly beat on the poor things shell until it cracked open. Let me tell you, that was quite a lesson. By the time it was finally opened we were all slightly traumatized and quietly ate our samples of fresh coconut in silence. Then we proceeded to behave like perfect angels for the rest of the day. No one dared to break rank in case the new punishment for getting your name on the board involved carpentry tools.

We rarely baked with coconut when I was growing up, with the exception of using bags of it to cover our annual Easter Bunny Cake. I’m sure I promptly and very indiscreetly scraped the coconut off my slice of bunny, because coconut was”weird” and “gross” and looked pretty but it couldn’t compare to purple sprinkles or jelly beans so “get it away from me!”

I did eventually learn to like coconut thanks to a samples person at Shaw’s Supermarket who gave me a Dixie Cup full of Bacardi Mixers Pina Colada mix (obviously without the rum). Now that was tasty! I bugged my mother all through the frozen foods aisle until she agreed to buy some. I suppose that was my first “cocktail.” I definitely thought I was totally posh drinking what was essentilly a Pina Colada flavored sugar filled milkshake. Ahh…to be 11 again. I would have been much better off had someone just made me some of these addictive mini coconut laden treats.

Coconut Sandwich Cookies (Originally published in the December 2007 issue of Everyday Food: A Martha Stewart Magazine)

Preheat oven to 350, with racks set in upper and lower thirds. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. Place 1/2 cup coconut into a small bowl; set aside. Place remaining coconut in a food processor; pulse until coarsely ground. Set aside.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter with sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. With mixer on low, gradually add flour mixture and ground coconut; mix just until combined.

Those look wonderful! Love your Silpat do ya? They are the greatest invention to man next to, oh, i dunno, football.

We used to get coconut macaroons in high school as a dessert from time to time and they proved to be great projectiles in the hallways to hit the underclassmen and take them down before their weggies. Ah…the good ole days.

Ahem…but these look like, if I were to get them on my plate, I’d be throwing the cookies instead. No doubt!

Get a chance? I’m going to make the time tomorrow, first thing! I don’t believe I’ll even try to think up an excuse! I’m with ya…hate crunchy, love soft, chewy, tender, puffy, and well, hate crunchy …..

I finally found time to make these today! What can I say? They are wonderful! I have a big family who know when to show up on my door step…they have bake-dar. I will double the recipe next time. I did add a few drops of coconut extract to the icing. The only change I will make next time, is to make them smaller. It seems to me that these need to be petite, little dainty cookies. I measured mine in tablespoons-full, and though they look small individually, once sandwiched together, they were a bit heavy and clunky looking. (not in your photo though, did you down size them at all?)But the taste? Perfect! Soft, with a perfect amount of chew and oh so buttery and coconut-y. Thank you for putting this one out there, its going into my ‘keeper’ file!

Hello, this is my first time here and I must say, you’ve touched me already with this dish. Coconut has been a part of my life since a child, but never have I ever had anything like this. These are just brilliant and beautiful! Wow, they look delicious and a perfect springtime treat! Thanks for sharing this! 🙂